Seven killed in Israeli air strike on southern Lebanon village

Ansar, Lebanon. Seven people were killed and three others injured in an Israeli dawn air strike on a house in the southern Lebanese village of Ansar on Saturday, Lebanon’s National News Agency said.

The attack was among the deadliest in Lebanon in recent weeks following the country’s agreement to a US-mediated peace framework with Israel.

Israeli military statement

Israel’s military said it struck Hezbollah infrastructure overnight in what it described as a security zone in southern Lebanon, responding to actions against its soldiers.

The framework’s terms leave Israeli troops in occupied southern Lebanon until Hezbollah is disarmed and the Lebanese army takes control. Hezbollah has rejected the terms.

Hezbollah response

“The framework agreement…is an Israeli order written in Israeli ink that the Lebanese authorities have signed onto,” Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said in a speech on Friday.

Israeli presence

Israel’s military seized an area of southern Lebanon during a war with Hezbollah earlier this year, triggered after the group fired at Israel two days into the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Israel has said it will retain forces in the area to protect northern Israel from further attacks. During a visit to southern Lebanon on Thursday, Defence Minister Israel Katz said Israel would not withdraw from regions under its control until Hezbollah was disarmed.

A US State Department official said a permanent Israeli military presence in the area was not consistent with commitments in the agreement with Lebanon’s government.

Casualties

At least 4,300 people have been killed in Lebanon in the latest round of hostilities since March 2.